


Memento

by turduckenail



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 20:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13465737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turduckenail/pseuds/turduckenail
Summary: After everything, Link reflects on the time he was the Hero of Legend, and misses everything he gave up when the world didn't need a Hero anymore.





	Memento

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third thing I've posted on here that I wrote like two years ago and forgot about until right this minute. I'm really proud of this one actually. There's another scene that I wrote for this of Ilia and Link having fun and being kids after everything they've been through. It seemed like the kind of scene I'd only be able to include if I continued this story, but I might write more and post it some day, just to give some more closure to this. If that's something you want me to do, drop me a comment! I'd love to hear what you think of this. :)
> 
> Find me on tumblr @turduckenail!

He doesn’t know why he kept it.

Ganon lies defeated, his body turned to ash in the wind. He won't be back for centuries at least, and when that time comes he'll be a problem for another hero.

The Twilight has receded, and the monsters that plagued Hyrule have been driven back to the warrens they crawled out of.

The children of Ordon have been escorted back home, Kakariko village is being rebuilt. Castle Town is as lively as it ever was, and Hyrule Castle is well under way to being restored to its former glory. Zelda has celebrated her coronation, and now leads the nation as its queen.

The shards of the Mirror of Twilight lie scattered in the desert wind, buried deep by the shifting sands. Midna must be working hard to rebuild her own kingdom. He hope’s she’s doing well. He mourns her absence, but he knows that there’s nothing he can do to bring her back.

And yet he carries it with him everywhere. He keeps it tied around his neck with a strip of leather. It hums against his chest, and if he listens closely he can hear the quiet, mournful keen he associates with anything belonging to the Twilight. He tells himself it’s just a memento. Something to remind him of his time with Midna.

In the back of his mind there’s a voice that says he knows better. It’s not a keepsake, it’s a lifeline. Like maybe this little shard of Twilight obsidian shot through with red can somehow bring her back.

He’s kidding himself. He knows this. But if there’s a chance – just the slightest hope – of seeing her again-

And maybe he’s crazy, holding on to a memory like it’s something he can have again, but…

This tree house has been his home for years. He carved it out with his own hands and nurtured the tree to keep on growing anyway. And for years it was the one place he could well and truly call home. It was his sanctuary, his refuge.

He can’t stand it anymore.

Because despite the fear and chaos of the past several months, despite the constant pain and exhaustion, despite himself, he can’t stop himself thinking that those were the best months of his life. The fields and valleys and skies of Hyrule and the surrounding provinces had grown to be his home. All the home he needed, really.

And he would never in a million years ask for those months back. For him to roam the world as its hero as he once did, the world would have to first be in need of a hero. That would mean the return of Ganon, of Zant, or of some greater evil. The return of the same destruction brought about by the monsters of the Twilight. It would mean plunging everyone and everything he had ever met back into chaos and misery. He wouldn’t ask for that.

But stars, what he wouldn’t give to go back to that life. An adventurer beholden to and dependent on no one and nothing.  Helping those in need, teaching the occasional lesson to whoever needed it. Wandering the countryside with nothing but his loyal horse and his ever present Shadow, winking up at him with an orange and red eye and a crown of ancient, broken stone.

So he keeps the shard. Because maybe, if he keeps a piece of her world close by, he can somehow recapture some aspect of that time.


End file.
